the forests, only grow far up on the topmost branches. Bright flowers and green foliage combine their charms, and climbing with their flowery festoons, cover over the bare and decaying stems. "Yet,"-and here comes in his protest,-" pick out the loveliest spots where the most glorious flowers of the tropics expand their glowing petals, and for every scene of this kind, we may find another at home of equal beauty, and with an equal amount of brilliant color. Look at a field of buttercups and daisies,—a hill-side covered with gorse and broom,-or a forest glade azure with a carpet of wild hyacinths, and they will bear a comparison with any scene the tropics can produce. I have never seen any thing more glorious than an old crab-tree in full blossom, and the horse-chestnut, lilac, and laburnum, will vie with the choicest tropical trees and shrubs. In the tropical waters are no more beautiful plants than our white and water lilies, our irises and the flowering rush; for I cannot consider the flower of the Victoria Regia more beautiful than that of the Nymphaea Alba, though it may be larger; nor is it so abundant an ornament of tropical waters as the latter is of ours." Our author then adds, that the changing hues of autumn, and the tender green of spring are never seen in the tropics; while the rich expanse of green meadows and rich pastures are wanting, and the distant landscape fails in the soft and hazy effects which so excite the imagination in the more temperate latitudes. Mr. Wallace leaves out of his description the numerous and splendid families of birds,-the taninjers, the toucans, the macaws, and the parroquets,but we are still inclined to concur in the spirit of his remarks. Even for exquisite scenery "there is no place like home."

We cannot quit the birds without quoting from Herndon a little legend which he heard of one, which had a peculiarly plaintive note, and was called by the Spaniards "the lost soul."

"After we had retired to our mats beneath the shed for the night, I asked the governor if he knew a bird called El alma perdida. He did not know it by that name, and requested a description. I whistled an imitation of its notes; whereupon, an old crone, stretched on a mat near us, commenced, with animated tones and gestures, a story in the Inca language, which, translated, ran somehow thus:

"An Indian and his wife went out from the village to work their chacra, carrying their infant with them. The woman went to the spring to get water, leaving the man in charge of the child, with many cautions to take good care of it. When she arrived at the spring she found it dried up, and went further to look for another. The husband, alarmed at her long absence, left the child and went in search. When they

returned the child was gone; and to their repeated cries as they wandered through the woods in search, they could get no response save the wailing cry of this little bird, heard for the first time, whose notes their anxious and excited imagination syllabled' into pa-pa, ma-ma (the present Quichua name of the bird). I suppose the Spaniards heard this story, and, with that religious poetic turn of thought which seems peculiar to this people, called the bird 'The lost soul.'

"The circumstances under which the story was told the beautiful, still, starlight night-the deep, dark forest around-the faint-red glimmering of the fire, flickering upon the old woman's gray hair and earnest face as she poured forth the guttural tones of the language of a people now passed away-gave it a sufficiently romantic interest to an imaginative man.”

The object of Herndon's visit was, as we have said, to explore the resources of the valley, and to ascertain to what extent it invited the commerce of foreign nations. Our distinguished astronomer, Lieutenant Maury, had long been of the opinion that this region opened the finest opportunities for trade, and was eager to direct the attention of capitalists to the importance and prospective value of a steam navigation of the Amazon. It was at his instance, therefore, as we suspect, that Lieutenants Herndon and Gibbon were selected for the expedition. Their reports strongly confirm his anticipations as to the wealth of the whole immense district. Our present trade with Para, the city at the mouth of the river, already amounts to about one million of dollars a year, but if the productions of the interior,the India-rubber, the sarsaparilla, the cocoa, and a thousand other commodities,-could be readily exchanged by means of steamboats, for our goods, the trade might be prodigiously increased. The several governments having jurisdiction over the river and its tributaries, those of Peru and Bolivia in particular, are disposed to pursue a liberal policy in regard to companies which will undertake the steam navigation of it, and it only requires the co-operation of Brazil to throw open the entire valley to the navigation of the world. Brazil has foolishly made a contract with one De Sousa for the exclusive navigation, but it appears to be doubtful whether he will be able to fulfil his part of the bargain, even if it should not turn out that the said contract is an infringement of the treaty with Peru, which stipulates for a joint action of the two nations in all that concerns the subject. Tirado, who was foreign minister of Peru last year, is opposed to the contract of De Sousa, and will succeed, we trust, in getting it disavowed. In the mean time the President of Peru, Don Jose Rufino Echinique, has issued a patriotic and enlightened decree,

1854.]

which offers the most liberal inducements to the navigation of the river, and to settlements in the districts over which Peru has control. It opens the ports of Nauta and Loreto to commerce, abandoning all import or export duties, and making concessions of lands, accompanied by a certain exemption from taxes, to all settlers. Bolivia has made a decree to the same effect, and it is hoped that Brazil will not long continue to stand in her own light. Herndon writes,

"Were she to adopt a liberal instead of an exclusive policy, throw open the Amazon to foreign commerce and competition, invite settlement upon its banks, and encourage emigration by liberal grants of lands, and efficient protection to person and property, backed as she is by such natural advantages, imagination could scarcely follow her giant strides towards wealth and greatness.

"She, together with the five Spanish American republics above named, owns in the valley of the Amazon more than two millions of square miles of land, intersected in every direction by many thousand miles of what might be called canal navigation.

On

"This land is of unrivalled fertility; on account of its geographical situation and topographical and geological formation, it produces nearly every thing essential to the comfort and well-being of man. the top and eastern slope of the Andes lie hid unimaginable quantities of silver, iron, coal, copper, and quicksilver, waiting but the application of science and the hand of industry for their development. The successful working of the quicksilver mines of Huancavelica would add several millions of silver to the annual product of Cerro Pasco alone. Many of the streams that dash from the summits of the Cordilleras wash gold from the mountain-side, and deposit it in the hollows and gulches as they pass. Barley, quinta, and potatoes, best grown in a cold, with wheat, rye, maize, clover, and tobacco, products of a temperate region, deck the mountain-side, and beautify the valley; while immense herds of sheep, llamas, alpacas, and vicunas feed upon those elevated plains, and yield wool of the finest and longest staple.

"Descending towards the plain, and only for a few miles, the eye of the traveller from the temperate zone

is held with wonder and delight by the beautiful and strange productions of the torrid. He sees for the first time the symmetrical coffee-bush, rich with its dark-green leaves, its pure white blossoms, and its gay, red fruit. The prolific plantain, with its great waving fan-like leaf, and immense pendant branches of golden-looking fruit, enchains his attention. The sugar-cane waves in rank luxuriance before him, and if he be familiar with Southern plantations, his heart swells with emotion as the gay yellow blossom and white boll of the cotton set before his mind's eye the familiar scenes of home.

"Fruits, too, of the finest quality and most luscious flavor, grow here; oranges, lemons, bananas, pineapples, melons, chirimoyas, granadillas, and many others which, unpleasant to the taste at first, become with use exceedingly grateful to the accustomed palate. The Indian gets hero his indispensable coca, and the forests at certain seasons are redolent with the perfume of the vanilla"

Let

Neither of the South American nations alone will be able to accomplish much towards the introduction of an energetic foreign population, but with the assistance of northern or European enterprise might Their make the most gigantic strides. inhabitants are not maritime; they have no skill in steam navigation; they are destitute of the necessary capital. But let them encourage the commerce of others, and they will instantly procure all the assistance that they need. them say to the people of the United States, already their best customers and most natural allies, "Come with your steamers laden with manufactures to our free ports," and their grand river would no longer roll in loneliness through the sullen solitudes, but grow white with ships, the precious harbingers of civilization and progress. Only give the Yankee a chance, and, in spite of insects, snakes, frog-concerts, and dirty Indians, he will raise you to power and glory.

LE

ET the Jurors at the Crystal Palace rest in peace. The exhibitors to whom they award an honorable mention will not be thereby made their enemies for life. Mr. Punch,-high authority,assured us that John Bull became furious at an honorable mention,' and even furnished us with the portrait of a gentleman in a rage at having attained that distinction. But it seems indeed, that—to use two very trite quotations,-nous avons changé tout cela, and that it is no longer true that cælum non animum mutantur qui trans mare currunt. In the last November number of this Magazine, we said that he who discovers the needful word for the misprint "runawayes eyes" in the second Scene of the third Act of Romeo and Juliet, will secure the honorable mention of his name as long as the English language is read and spoken.” This opinion has been regarded as a prediction by several enthusiastic Shakesperians; and in fact we have been addressed as if we had at least a certain amount of a certain grade of immortality in our keeping, a portion of which we had promised to bestow upon the lucky conjecturer who should supply the needful word in poor Juliet's soliloquy. Aspirants after so much immortality as is implied in coexistence with the English language, have offered themselves from all quarters of the country. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Missouri, South Carolina, and New York and Maine all furnish candidates.

Since the subject seems to have awakened so general an interest, we give our readers the benefit of the conjectures of our correspondents, and the arguments with which they sustain them. But we can by no means consent to be counted out of the contest. Long before the appearance of the article which has directed a renewed attention to the notorious error in question, we had ventured upon a conjectural emendation of the passage, which seemed to us not only unobjectionable, but eminently suited to the exigencies of the case; and under the circumstances we shall be obliged to present our readers with a page or two from a volume of Historical and Critical Comments upon the Text and Characters of Shakespeare now passing through the press. But first for a glance at the efforts of some of our rivals.

Our Western correspondent addresses us through the columns of the St. Louis Intelligencer. After a short deprecatory introduction, he says:

"Without further circumstance, I offer you my substitute, for what is very evidently a misprint. The sentence runs thus: "Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night! That run-away's [noonday's] eyes may wink; and Romeo

Leap to these arms," &c.

"Now, gentlemen, if you read the whole speech set down to Juliet, of which this is a part, the entire context, I think, favors the substitution of 'noonday's' for 'runaway's.'"

He sustains his reading by remarking, what is sufficiently obvious, that "the feverish impatience" of Juliet "chides what to her are the tedious hours of garish day," and that "she invokes the coming of the night as the best boon," because it would bring Romeo to her longing arms. "What then," he asks, "more likely, than that this lovesick woman should call upon night to let fall her curtain, and put out, or make wink, the eye of day-the 'noon-day's sun?'”

The conjectured reading of our St. Louis critic is not without some plausibility; and it resembles somewhat one proposed by the Rev. Alexander Dyce, which will be noticed hereafter, and also the words which have occurred to one of our New England correspondents. But "noonday's eyes" will not win for its proposer the distinction which he demands, and for very sufficient reasons. Even if there were no objection, as to time, against the word "noonday," there is a literalness and particularity about it which are poetically out of place in the passage for which it is proposed. Juliet is using large and general terms: she calls the West "Phoebus' mansion," and her thoughts spring directly from day to "cloudy night." She is affected only by the ideas of light and obscurity: she does not consider hours or parts of the day or night. To her there is but one grand division of time; and to make her specify noontime, in attributing eyes to day, is to introduce a speciality into her speech incongruous with her tone of thought. But supposing such particularity not objectionable on the higher ground of criticism, the time specified in the term is inconsistent with the reqire

ments of the scene; and therefore Shakespeare would have been particular, only to be particularly wrong. This is evident from the fact, which a short examination will bring to light, that Juliet was not married until after noonday; and that some hours elapsed between her marriage and the time of this soliloquy. In the garden scene on the previous night Juliet says to Romeo,—

"At what o'clock to-morrow

Shall I send to thee?"

And he replies,—

"By the hour of nine.'

Juliet, in the fifth Scene of the second Act, in her impatience to hear from her lover, says,

"The clock struck nine, when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promised to return. Perchance she cannot meet him," &c.

So that it was well on towards ten o'clock before Juliet received Romeo's message. But what was that message? We find it in the fourth Scene of this same Act.

"Bid her devise some means to come to shrift
This afternoon :

And there she shall, at Friar Laurence's cell,
Be shriv'd and married."

It was then some time past noonday before Juliet went to the Friar's cell. There she was married; and we may be sure that she did not hasten away again. But after she and Romeo had parted, and in the long first Scene of the next Act, the brawl takes place in which Mercutio is killed by Tybalt and Tybalt by Romeo. This all intervenes between the parting of Romeo and Juliet, after their marriage in the afternoon, and Juliet's soliloquy: quite enough to show that "noonday But is not the word which she uses. she herself gives the coup de grace to this supposition; for in the very scene of her soliloquy, having been betrayed into upbraiding Romeo, by hearing from the Nurse that he has killed Tybalt, she remorsefully exclaims,

"Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy

name

When I, thy three hours' wife, have mangled it?" Under the circumstances, Juliet would certainly name a shorter time than had actually elapsed since she became Romeo's wife; and therefore, she having been married in the afternoon, it is plain that her soliloquy is spoken toward evening.

But what need of this comparison of hours and minutes! Is not the soliloquy itself steeped in the passionful languor of VOL III.-19

a summer's afternoon just melting into twilight? Is it not plain that Juliet has been watching the sun sink slowly down to the horizon, and gazing pensively into the golden air, until her own imaginings have taken on its glowing hue, and that then she breaks out into her longing prayer for night and Romeo? Facts and figures tell us that her soliloquy is spoken just before sunset; but what reader of the whole soliloquy will not set aside the evidence of facts and figures as superfluous -almost impertinent?

Our Southern correspondent suggests "run-i'-way's" for " runaways," and would read,

'Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That run-i'-ways eyes may wink,' &c.

He makes this suggestion in a very pleasant letter, indicative of fine taste and feeling on the part of the writer, the length of which, however, precludes our use of it. He supposes that Juliet is expressing a wish that run-in-the-ways', i. e., interlopers', eyes may wink; and that "runawayes" is the contracted word, with the mere typographical error of a single letter. The contraction he arrives at thus:-runin-the-ways, run-in-th'-ways, run-i-th'ways, run-i'-ways. This is ingenious; but such a contraction and such an idea are hardly in the manner of Shakespeare; and we therefore postpone an elaborate consideration of it until all more probable suggestions have been set aside.

Boston furnishes the next candidate for honorable mention, who thus cleverly, directly, and modestly withal, asserts his claim.

"The closing sentence of the article on Shakspeare, in your November number, is responsible for this: so if this be a bore, act accordingly.

"Instead of run-away's eyes,' I would read wan day's eyes. The word day, makes the sense perfect and plain. The use of 'day's eye' for light is not an uncommon figure; it may be found in most poets of that time, and of a later time also. Milton takes it even farther. He calls day-break the 'opening eyelid of the morn.' Wan is the very adjective that Juliet would apply to day, considering it as opposed to 'loveperforming night.' Carelessly written, ‘runaway's eyes,' has much the same appearance as 'wan-day's eyes.'

'Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night! That wan day's eyes may wink.'

As a consequence of this, Romeo is to come unwatched,' &c. Does not this make the image plain! The thought is in Milton:

So tedious is this day,

As is the night before some festival,
To an impatient child.'

"Now, then,-if you believe as I do,-I claim the reward.-Very respectfully, "G. N. H."

This suggestion is good. Evidently, "wan days," if indistinctly written, might be mistaken for "runawayes." The idea of "the eye of day" is also quite suitable to the passage; and indeed it has been before suggested by the Rev. Alexander Dyce. Our Boston correspondent also sustains his conjecture ably by the authority of Milton and of Shakespeare himself. But this and all the other hypothetical readings known to us before the receipt of the letter of our Southern correspondent, fail to meet the demands of one essential part of the context; and we are thus brought to the extract from the unpublished Shakesperian volume, to which we have alluded. It was written, with the exception of a few lines touching a récent suggestion of Mr. Dyce's and a statement of the reading of Mr. Collier's folio, three years and more ago, merely as a part of the author's Shakesperian studies, and with no thought that it would ever see the light in this shape. Here is the extract:

"Juliet.-Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,

That runaway's eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen.'

Of the incomprehensible "runaways" in the second line, an obvious misprint, many explanations and many emendations have been offered. Warburton thought that the runaway was the sun: Steevens thought that Juliet meant to call the night a runaway: Douce insists that she applies that term to herself, as a runaway from her duty to her parents. But no explanation will obviate the difficulty. There is, unquestionably, a misprint, and a gross one. The conjectural emendations have been as diverse as numerous. Monck Mason proposed Renomy's, that is Rennome's; Zachary Jackson, unawares, which was adopted by Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight, in spite of the feeble sense it gives; and Mr. Collier's folio has "enemies' eyes." All the conjectures have been un

satisfactory, rather on account of the sense which they give, than the improbability of the mistake which they involved. The most plausible suggestion yet made, seems to me to be, "rude day's," by Mr. Dyce, in his Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. C. Knight's Editions of Shakespeare. In his last publication, A Few Notes on Shakespeare, he offers "roving eyes." But it is surely much better to read

Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That rude day's eyes may wink,

than.

That roving eyes may wink.

Neither of these, however, is more satisfactory to me than they appear to be to Mr. Dyce himself. The error will probably remain for ever uncorrected, unless a word which I venture to suggest seems to others as unexceptionable as it does to me. Juliet desires that somebody's eyes may wink, so that Romeo may leap to her arms "untalked of" as well as "unseen." She wishes to avoid the scandal, the bruit, which would ensue upon the discovery of her new made husband's secret visit.

I think, therefore, and also because the misprint is by no means improbable (as I know from experience) that Shakespeare wrote " rumoures eyes," and that we should read,

'Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That rumour's eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen.'

This occurred to me in consequence of an endeavor to conjecture what would satisfy the exigencies of the last as well as of the second line of these three; and perhaps I yield quite as much to the immediate impression which the word made upon me, and which all other conjectures, whether of others or myself, had failed in the least to do, as to the reasons which have confirmed my first opinion.

I

The absence of a long letter in "rumoures," to correspond with the y in "runawayes," does not trouble me. have repeatedly found in my proofs words containing long letters when the word I wrote contained none, and vice versa; and yet my manuscript is welcomed by the compositor on account of its legibility. It should be noticed, too, that neither Jackson's unawares (accepted by Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight), nor Mr. Collier's Folio Corrector's enemies contains a long letter. Those who understand the economy of the composing case will see that a long letter is not necessary in the word to be substituted here, because most of the